To Be A Rebel

Chapter 1: You Spin Me Round

"Janine, Sigrid's taken your home."

Breathe in. Breathe out.

"Sam, she has our child!"

Breathe in. Breathe out.

"Five, Sigrid was the one who shot your helicopter down."

Steady. Stay steady.

"She has taken Abel, but we're breaking in. We are rescuing our people."

I tense.

"We are taking our home back!"

The bushes rustle as I duck down.

"Over there," A guard says. "Something moved."

They start shooting.

"You've got to keep moving, Five," Sam breathes out, his breathing labored from fear, from desperation. "You're our last hope."

I sprint off.

"If they want something, we thwart them. If they do something, we stand against it."

"Someone's got inside the wire! It's one of them, an Abel runner."

They keep shooting. Alarms blare in my ears, and  I keep my head down, my heart pounding as I try to remain under the cover of night. I feel every one of my footsteps, every breath, every heartbeat. It screams one thing within the chaos of the shouts and gunshots and alarms.

Run.

"It's just like we planned, Five," Janine says calmly. "They're following my emergency plan to the letter. They'll close the gates now. And the noise will give you your opportunity."

"If they've won, then we're all that's left, and we fight because that's who we are!"

"Close the gates!" A guard yells. "There's an intruder!"

I hear the sirens, and the gates closing. My heart pounds. I have to time this perfectly. I have to do this perfectly or everything will be ruined.

"Now, Runner Five," Janine commands.

I jump out of the shadows, grabbing the device and the electronic box that comes with it from my bag.

"Stop!" A guard yells. He raises his gun. I slap the device onto the concrete wall of the armory. I jump behind a building as he pulls the trigger, and I press the button on the box in my hand.

Beep. Beep.

An explosion erupts from the device, concrete flying. The guard shouts as he's blown back, concrete hitting him hard. I run inside, only looking ahead, ignoring the swirling chaos around me.

"That's it. The door's blown. You're through the armory permitter wall."

"Now, stay close to that wall, Five," Sam says, his voice shaking. "The searchlights won't quite reach you."

I press my body up against the wall, eyeing the searchlights as they flash around, trying to find me, trying to get to me. I hear vehicles revving up from just outside the armory.

"Sigrid's sending her armored vehicles out now, Five," Janine says. "She's taken the bait. She thinks the danger's coming from outside the gates."

"She sending more guards to run the perimeter, Janine. Runner Five needs to move now!"

I tense, preparing to run, but then something flies over my head. It hits the ground, right in front of a group of guards that were coming my way. They'll see me if they just continue this way, but they stop and-